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Tuesday, June 21, 2011

Book Tour and Giveaway: You Are Not Your Brain by Jeffrey Schwartz and Rebecca Gladding

Welcome to one of the stops on TLC Book Tours for You Are Not Your Brain by Jeffrey Schwartz, M.D. and Rebecca Gladding, M.D.!

You Are Not Your Brain is a wonderfully written self-help book by two prominent neuroscience researchers. Many years of research have culminated in their theory to help people stop listening to the deceptive messages produced by their own brains and become the person they want to be instead.

Do you have any bad habits that you wish you could just stop doing? These include excessive worrying or anxiety, eating or drinking to cope with stress, caring too much about what other people think, and more. Schwartz and Gladding have developed a method to overcome these bad habits through four easy steps- Relabel, Reframe, Refocus, and Revalue.

Before beginning the steps, though, Gladding and Schwartz clearly explain the background to their theory so that you know why the recommend their steps. One of the main points is to make the distinction between the brain and the mind. In their view:

the brain receives inputs and generates the passive side of experience, whereas the mind is active, focusing attention, and making decisions. (page 21)

Therefore, by saying that you are not your brain, they mean that your mind can make the conscious decisions to act or not act on what your brain is saying since your brain is passive input and output system. This is an important concept in their theory since you have to recognize the difference in order to change your actions and stop listening to your brain's deceptive messages that tell you to worry, eat, drink, etc.

After going through the basis of the theory, they then go through the steps of the program to help you. Each step has multiple exercises to practice small bits of the step until you're able to recognize and achieve the step. These exercises, if taken seriously, will really help you achieve your goals. You Are Not Your Brain is very easy to understand and has the potential to help you with your struggles to be the person you want to be.

My Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

Want to win a copy of You Are Not Your Brain?I am giving away one copy of this book from the publisher. Just leave a comment on the post with your email address and, if you want, one struggle you with and want change. This giveaway ends June 30, 2011 at 11:59pm. I will choose one winner randomly and contact them via email for their address. The book will be mailed by the publisher.

I received one copy of You Are Not Your Brain for free to review. This did not affect my review in any way and I did not receive any compensation for my review.

I love self help book.I have some of them in my shelf. However many of my friends keep telling me something negative about this kind of genre, I still believe that it has its own way to help us through.